working in a professional firm--feels to share

I would like to have anyone working in professional accounting firm to share their feelings. we all know we dont have much extra time after working OT all the time, but still we have own stuff to deal with like family.

Somehow under huge pressure, we still have to perfom extremely well and exceed expectation...

I wish we could share a little bit ideas or feelings here..

Longrun,

While I do not work in a professional accounting firm, this sentiment and feeling is shared accross many different professions and jobs.

It seems we are asked to do more, give more, be more at the expense of the other non-career aspects of our lives.

For myself and those folks I am friends with, we wake up at 4:30, get the kids ready for school/daycare and rush them off to where they need to be, and rush to work. Once there you are burdened with ever increasing demands, rarely take lunch or breaks, and at the end of the day you rush to pick up said kids, fix dinner, do homework with them, clean the house, do what chores you can then, if you are lucky and someone isn't sick or an emergency is not in progress, you get an hour or two to spend to collect your thoughts or spend with your partner.

~AzurePhoenix

Like I say, life burden is always there to take. But case like you, AzurePhoenix,apart from work, having kids and own family is pretty happy in my concern. Or if you think it's even worse than being 30 something but still single like many ppl in my company especially woman. however, I'm not approach that age, but I could tell from their images, if want to make a successful professional career, the opportunity of knowing well of ppl from different sector is tiny, the time of going on a date is limited, the time of spending with b/f is constraint.

Kinda hard though..dont even have a chance to get crush of new guys outside of work, cant be true.

The question again: career vs. relationship/personal time. I think AzurePhoenix, you have alot - I don't want to downplay that you have alot of work taking care of your family and work - I know it is really hard, and you are a good father because of that, but I think alot of people including myself are envious somewhat. You have your career and your family. Most of us just have careers, and that is the trend these days.

More men and women (especially) choose the single life - and although it is probably not what we want most, it is all we can get given the demands on our time due to our careers. This trend is also starting in Japan and Korea, whereupon the likes of single women (and men) who don't marry are happy, even though they only have their careers (and friends) (and believe me, being Asian myself, I find this uplifting that things are changing - just because they are, period).

So, to quote Sheryl Crow said in her song "Soak up th sun": Its not having what you want, its wanting what you have.

Kung fu